(by Ed Moloney, Sunday Tribune,)

The British Ambassador in Dublin, Ivor Roberts is being named in political circles as the author of a secret British government report which described the Minister for Foreign affairs, Brian Cowen as displaying "all the subtlety and open-mindedness that one would expect from a member of Sinn Féin".

The British embassy refused to make any comment on the reports. "We can neither confirm nor deny this", said a spokesman who added that it was normal policy not to comment on leaked documents.

The ambassador is understood to have been present during a dinner in Iveagh House, Dublin last month for NI Secretary, Peter Mandelson hosted by Brian Cowen during which the Taoiseach and the British prime minister Tony Blair dropped in. British diplomats however refused to confirm or deny even this detail.

The comments allegedly made by Roberts (54) came during what was described as "a vigorous exchange" between Mandelson and Cowen over what some well informed sources said was the future of the RUC’s badge.

According to the report, one paragraph of which was leaked to the Unionist politician Chris McGimpsey, Cowen is said to have remarked that apart from acceptance of Northern Ireland’s constitutional status as part of the UK, "there should be no further evidence of Britishness in the governance of Northern Ireland".

The report added that Cowen’s comments underlined Peter Mandelson’s view that the Minister for Foreign Affairs "has no feel for, or understanding of, Unionist concerns and can usually be reliably counted on to tack to the green (republican position) at every opportunity".

Since that dinner, which was held on April 18th, a draft Bill of the changes in the RUC based on recommendations made in the Patten report has been leaked and this showed that the British have blunted a proposal to replace the RUC badge with a more neutral emblem. Instead the future of the badge, which presently features a harp mounted by a crown, would be decided after consultation with interested parties including RUC bodies.

Since the Bill would have been in the last stages of preparation at the time of the Dublin dinner it makes sense for Cowen to have raised the issue of British symbols with Peter Mandelson. Unionists are pressing for a concession over the RUC badge in an effort to ease the way towards restoring the Good Friday Agreement institutions and it would have made sense for the British side to seek understanding of the Unionist position from Dublin.

Ivor Roberts is a career Foreign Office diplomat who became ambassador to Ireland in February 1999 after a three year spell in the Yugoslav capital Belgrade, first as charge d’affaires and then as ambassador.